Volume 2 The Executioner Chapter 115 Farewell
Today is the day Ogata decided to leave Hirose Domain.
Although some of his injuries have not yet healed completely, according to Xuan An, these injuries are no longer a problem and will not affect Ogata's movements or his sword-wielding.
Since Xuan'an has already said so, Oobian decided to end this long period of recuperation and leave Hirose Domain.
As if God was helping Ogata, today was a very comfortable sunny day.
Although the sun is high in the sky, it doesn't feel stuffy at all.
From time to time there is a breeze, which is very comfortable.
This kind of weather is perfect for going out for a long journey.
Kuranaga took the initiative to offer to see Ogata off.
In response to Kuranaga's request to see him off, Ogata did not act pretentiously and readily agreed to let Kuranaga walk him part of the way.
Although he decided to leave Hirose Domain today, Ogata was not in a hurry to leave.
Instead, he took a detour to visit the Liuwu, which he hadn't visited for a long time.
Only after making sure that Asaki and Afu were now living a very stable life did Ogata feel comfortable leaving the Hirose domain.
"Ogata-kun."
Kuranaga, who was half a step behind Ogata, suddenly asked Ogata.
"Are you...really going to wear this outfit? Are you not going to change into something else?"
At this time, Ogata was wearing a black hakama, a dark blue kimono, and a light green haori.
He wore black cloth socks and straw sandals on his feet.
He was wearing a bamboo hat on his head.
On the left waist was a katana and a wakizashi that were very expensive, which could be easily seen from the handle and scabbard.
Be it the hat, the sword, or the clothes, everything was brand new and you could tell at a glance that they were newly purchased recently.
Ogata looked down at what he was currently wearing.
"Master, is there anything wrong with my clothes like this?"
"There's nothing wrong with your hakama and kimono. The main problem is...your haori."
Kuranaga raised his hand and pointed at the light green haori on Ogata.
"Ogata-kun, are you really not going to get a new haori?"
"Oh, Yuori."
Ogata touched the wide-sleeved, light green haori he was wearing.
"No need, Elder . I like this haori very much, so I have no intention of changing it."
Ogata understood Kuranaga's action of asking him whether he wanted to change his haori .
In this era, light green is a rather earthy color.
The most popular colors are dark colors like black.
Going out wearing light green clothes is like announcing to the world that you are a country bumpkin.
But Ogata didn't care about it.
Light green is his favorite color.
Even though this color is considered very old-fashioned in the eyes of people of this era, Ogata has no intention of changing his clothes to another color.
"...Forget it." Kuranaga sighed , "It's your freedom to wear whatever color clothes you want, Ogata-kun. I can't say anything more."
"My Lord," Ogata suddenly said, "Please accompany me on a long detour to go somewhere."
"No problem." Kuransaga said cheerfully, "You can go wherever you want now. I'll accompany you to the end. Anyway, I have plenty of time now."
"Grateful."
Ogata took Kuranaga and Tobisaru and turned left and right in the town.
Soon, he arrived at his destination - Xuanzhen Temple.
To be precise, it is the cemetery behind Xuanzhen Temple.
After entering the cemetery behind Genshinji Temple with Kuranaga, Obe went straight to the graves of his master Hanbei and his fellow disciples.
He wanted to see his master and fellow disciples one last time before leaving Hirose Domain.
In addition to visiting his master and fellow disciples, Ogata also took the opportunity to visit Ichiro and the others.
There are 6 tombstones in the cemetery that are obviously newly built.
These six tombs are the tombs of Ichiro and others.
After the successful assassination of Matsudaira Gennai, Kuranaga buried the bodies of Ichiro and others in this Xuanshin Temple.
During the period of recuperation, Ogata came here several times to pay tribute to Ichiro and others.
…
…
"Ogata-kun. Do you know...whose graves these three belong to?"
When Ogata was sweeping away the fallen leaves on the tombstones of his master and fellow apprentices one by one, Kuranaga who was standing beside him suddenly asked him this.
Ogata looked in the direction that Kuranaga's finger was pointing.
Those were three tombstones that Ogata had never seen before.
Judging from the appearance of the tombstones, these three tombs are relatively new.
“What is this…?” Ogata asked in confusion.
"…This happened before I met you, Ogata-kun."
A look of reminiscence appeared on Kuranaga's face.
"Before I met you, Ogata-kun, I met three other samurai who were also skilled in swordsmanship."
"I intend to recruit them and ask them to lend me a hand to punish the lord together."
"And those three warriors... rejected my invitation."
"Although the three warriors patted their chests and promised me after they rejected my invitation that they would never tell anyone about my intention to assassinate the lord."
"But... my plan to assassinate my lord cannot afford any unexpected consequences..."
"So... just to be on the safe side, I sent someone to assassinate them."
"Fortunately, the three of them are just ordinary low-level warriors, so it is very convenient to assassinate them."
"...I see." An intriguing smile appeared on Ogata's face. "Fortunately, I accepted your invitation at that time, or I might have to lie here too."
“Yeah.” Kuranaga’s face showed an expression that made it hard to tell whether he was crying or laughing. “Too many innocent people…died because of me…”
After saying this, Kuranaga silently took out a small handful of short incense from his arms, lit incense on the graves of the three poor warriors, and clasped his hands together while chanting prayers.
…
…
After taking a last look at his master, fellow apprentices, Ichiro and the others in the cemetery, Ogata had no place else he wanted to go in the Hirose domain.
So he walked one after another with Kuranaga and Tobisaru on the road leading away from Hirose Domain.
"Ogata-kun."
Perhaps in order to prevent the atmosphere between them from becoming too silent or awkward, Kuranaga asked Ogata this.
"Have you packed all your luggage?"
"I've brought everything." Ogata patted his arms, "This is all I have."
Ogata only had these few pieces of luggage - the two new swords given to him by Kuranaga on his waist, the secret manual of "Muga Nito-ryu", the certificate of Sakakibara Ittoryu Menkyo Kaiden, and a purse filled with various coins.
"It's good that all the luggage is brought." Cangyong nodded gently.
After that, there was no conversation along the way.
Ogata walked forward silently.
Kuranaga and Tobisaru followed Ogata silently and saw him off.
Only after looking around and seeing no more human beings did Kuranaga stop.
"Ogata-kun, Tobisaur and I will drop you off here."
